Andy Herod is miserable.
It’s pouring down bullets of water, and he’s attempting to track down his ’89 Ford Econoline van that has been towed from Brooklyn to a storage facility in Queens.
This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened to him since he moved to the city a year ago.
Herod, the lead singer of The Comas, and most of his bandmates (Nicole Gehweiler on guitar, Cameron Weeks on drums and Justin Williams on bass) have made the “big artist” transition: leaving the small town—the town-in-question being Chapel Hill—for the Big Apple.
No, losing his van isn’t the first time Herod’s been heartbroken. In fact, he recently broke off a two-year relationship with former Dawson’s Creek star Michelle Williams. And Blender Magazine summed up The Coma’s latest album Conductor—a concept record inspired by Herod’s melancholy—as “11 songs about breaking up with the blonde one from Dawson’s Creek.”
“I dated this girl, and it was a big part of my life,” Herod says. “The record wasn’t meant to be a breakup record. It’s just when we went to fill in the blanks of the songs, that’s the theme that came out.”
Indeed, the record’s sound is all drizzly fuzz guitar and cool desperation. Songs like “Tonight On The WB” contain especially forlorn and bitter lyrics; “I love it when you fall apart/You turn it into higher art” is an example.
During the group’s lifespan, Herod has also dealt with the departure of various band members and another ruinous relationship—this time with Warner Bros. imprint 679 Recordings. With Conductor, The Comas had to contend with the most money they’d ever been given to produce a record, “expectations and pressure to sell a lot of records” and afterwards, various legal problems.
“It was a quagmire for awhile,” Herod says.
Asked if he would ever begin a relationship with another silky starlet again, he responds with a succinct “no.” And on whether his band would sign with another major again, he replies, “I would probably date a starlet before I did that.”
Two years ago, Herod was hanging out at the likes of Chapel Hill’s smoky basement bar The Cave. At the time, the prototypical hipster—he had the glasses—seemed content. He said then his plans were for the band to take over the world.
Today, he says his plans have changed.
“It’s really simple,” Herod says. “We’re here just to make the best music possible. That’s all we’re concerned with now. Everything else you can’t really control.”
He sounds resigned.
But Herod has a lot to be proud of. All three of The Comas’ albums have attracted critical acclaim, with publications like Magnet Magazine hailing the group as one of indie rock’s preeminent outfits. And they have crossed over to mainstream magazines, garnering positive reviews in Rolling Stone and Spin.
Their latest release—or as Herod terms it, “a massive art project gone haywire”—was accompanied by a well-received animated short starring Herod’s ex. The band has also engaged in other audiovisual endeavors, recording two videos for “Tonight On The WB” and “Invisible Drugs.”
The latter song is among the group’s best work; an impossibly staccato drumbeat and a fuzzing bass propel the track’s narrative of unrequited love. The video portrays the scrubby-looking band attempting to make a video under a parking garage until Herod flicks a switch and The Comas are suddenly in fashionable threads playing in an arena.
“We weren’t trying to be rock stars,” Herod remarks slyly.
Indeed, the latest video, which was featured on Yahoo!’s Launch and Rolling Stone’s website, might just be the band’s illuminating spotlight.
For now, the band is at work on another album and shopping around for a new label. “We’re not contractually obligated to anybody right now,” Herod says.
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